Video Games and Learning

Weaned on Video Games
Michel Marriott >> New York Times >> Technology

"It is unclear whether video games teach preschool children more about phonics and problem solving than about simply how to tool around in a virtual playground. But everyone seems to agree that the ranks of young video gamers are substantial. Video gamers are getting younger and younger. And parents and the video game industry agree that the implications are likely to be enormous."

Election 2004 Web Resource

Equal Vote: "Daniel Tokaji is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. His areas of expertise include civil rights, freedom of speech, voting rights, disability rights, and civil procedure.

Prof. Tokaji is presently the author of a daily weblog (or "blog") called Equal Vote. His blog addresses the civil rights implications of changes in our election system, with special attention to the ongoing debate over electronic voting."

iPod and Education

Technology circles are buzzing about new ways to use the iPod--beyond music.

For example, Duke University, in conjunction with Apple, gave all incoming freshman Apple iPods for educational use. According to Duke, "the iPods will be preloaded with such Duke-related content as information about orientation and the academic calendar; students also can download faculty-provided course content."

Podcasting will allow teachers to easily publish (or podcast) lectures, photos (perfect for the art history or architecture student), or foreign language drills, along with a myriad of other course content.

Students will be able to subscribe to a course content feed and then automatically receive the content on their iPod. In a distance education context, podcasting could very well serve as a social support tool.

Links

• What is Podcasting?
• How to Podcast
• iPod in education
• Podcast.net
• More than Music
• BlendedEdu+Podcasts

Technorati Tags: education+technology education ipod+education education+podcasting podcast podcasting

Gamer Generation

John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade’s new book Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever shows how growing up immersed in video games has profoundly shaped the attitudes and abilities of this new generation. Be prepared you probably will be working alongside one of them before you retire.

And be sure to read the HBS Working Knowledge article "Managing the Gamer Generation." This interview with the authors talks about working with this generation of very social, creative, team players who believe that nothing is impossible.

This Gamer Generation who grew up with their fingers on a keyboard and text messaging will make great workers and managers. Playing games for hours will make taking risks seem like second nature to them.

Education Technology Portal

"The National Centre for Technology in Education is an Irish Government agency established to provide advice, support and information on the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in education."

Homework Management System

"SurfYourWork was developed to provide users with many features under an ultra user-friendly interface that makes using the system simple, easy, and fun. Also, SurfYourWork is a flexible system that is regularly updated to offer the newest features for learning institutions, as their needs change. A fundamental SurfYourWork design principle is to ensure that training is not required, from any of the users, to utilize the system."

Download eBooks or Listen to Authors Talk

Project Gutenberg

Since 1971 Michael Hart’s Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free eBooks. This site has an extensive collection of more than 13,000 books online available to download and read.

Browse the online catalog to find eBooks, audio books, digitized sheet music and much more. Keep track of newly added eBooks with the RSS Feed that is updated nightly.


Eye on Books


Bill Thompson’s site Eye on Books doesn’t contain book reviews or best-seller lists, but rather audio interviews with authors who speak openly about their work.

The author interviews are the heart of the site, but you’ll also find a Writer’s Craft section, a Hot Ten list of favorite author interviews, and you can receive a “semi” frequent newsletter that notifies readers/listeners about the newest interviews posted to the site.

And yes there’s a RSS Feed too.


Technorati Tags: education+technology education open+content curriculum etext open+source ebooks

EIfEL: Building a Learning Europe

EIfEL: "EIfEL (European Institute for E-Learning) is a European professional association dedicated to the support of the continuing professional development of individuals and the transformation of organisations who wish to enter into the knowledge economy and society. This website is provided by EIfEL to promote research and best practice in the field of knowledge, information and learning technologies."

iStopMotion

iStopMotion: "Educators around the world are excited about the use of iStopMotion in the classroom. And so are their students! No wonder, because learning with iStopMotion is a lot of fun. Stop Motion animation has many uses and benefits in the curriculum.

It teaches soft skills such as teamwork, structural thinking, planing and provides immediate satisfaction. Stop Motion animation can be used in many different contexts. The time lapse recording feature opens up even more possibilities in the scientific curriculum where it helps to make slow processes more visible to the students. "

• View student iStopMotion projects

European Union and E-Learning

European Union E-Learning Resources: "This section offers a selection of on-line learning resources for schools identified by several educational European portals, mostly belonging to the Education Ministries of the Member States.

The majority of the resources compiled are free of charge.You can access the resources by subjects or consulting the list of generic resources."

Other European Commission sponsored links on E-Learning & Teaching:

• Best Practices
• eContent
• Socrates

Technorati Tags: net+generation digital+pedagogy digital+learning+styles education+technology education online+communities

Future of Learning

MIT Media Laboratory: "The Future of Learning Group explores how new technologies can enable new ways of thinking, learning, and designing. The group creates new "tools to think with" and explores how these tools can help bring about change in real-world settings, such as schools, museums, and under-served communities."

Educational Blogging

Educational Blogging
Stephen Downes > Educase

"Dominic Ouellet-Tremblay, a fifth-grade student at St-Joseph, writes: The blogs give us a chance to communicate between us and motivate us to write more. When we publish on our blog, people from the entire world can respond by using the comments link. This way, they can ask questions or simply tell us what they like.

We can then know if people like what we write and this indicate[s to] us what to do better. By reading these comments, we can know our weaknesses and our talents. Blogging is an opportunity to exchange our point of view with the rest of the world not just people in our immediate environment.”



education blogging social+software learning student+blogs

Instant Messaging on the Move

Flip Open that Cellphone. It's IM on the Move:
Heather Clancy > New York Times > Technology

"Lauren Mathy, a 13-year-old from Chicago who has been using the Ogo for about four weeks after receiving a test version, said the gadget was easy for her to learn and let her stay in touch with friends 'anywhere, anytime.' Although she doesn't use it in class because of a school policy restricting such devices, she carries the Ogo pretty much everywhere else."

Digital Danger? Instant Messaging Safety

Who's There? How Parents Can be IM Watchdogs:
Larry Magid > New York Times > Technology

"Once a child enters a chat room or opens an instant messaging program, he or she can communicate with just about anyone.

Even with a parent hovering nearby, all that can be seen is the sender's screen name, which may have nothing to do with his real identity. It might be a friend, a classmate or perhaps a friend of a friend, but it is also possible that it is a stranger."

Technorati Tags: online+safety social+software+safety IM+safety

Learning Theories in Video Game Design

What Do Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy: James Paul Glee

This book, by James Paul Glee, tosses about the idea that video games offer important learning strategies that are relevant to learning in the classroom. Video games are an interactive technology that challenges players to stay on task for hours, experimenting and discovering the best strategies to obtain a desired outcome. Glee suggests that educators learn from the 36 learning principles that are inherent in video game design.

Throughout the book Glee responds to the question “Are video games a waste of time?” Glee presents his case by illustrating that good design principles are imbedded in video games and by investigating ‘why video games aren’t a waste of time’ he presents the evidence that players complete the probe, hypothesize, and rethink cycles that are essential for discovery in learning.

He also emphasizes that in playing highly interactive, social and extremely challenging video games knowledge is distributed and shared among the players creating an ideal learning situation. But don’t worry he doesn’t suggest educators run out and play games. He states that many of us would be too frustrated by the challenge and quit, but he adds we can learn a lot from good video game designers and from the young people who play them.